The
current lack of trust is a major issue in many organisations. In their 2016 Global CEO Survey PwC reported
that 55% of CEOs think that a lack of trust is a serious threat to their organisation’s
growth. Sadly, most of them of them have
done little to improve it because they are not sure where to start.
Well
help is at hand. Neuroscientists are now
using fascinating experiments to explore the very nature of trust and what we
can do to enhance it, especially when there is so much going on in the world
that destroys it.
Eroding Trust
Statistically
the world is now a safer place for humans than it has ever been. You are more likely to die of old age or ill
health than in a violent incident than at any previous time in our recorded
history. Yet if you read the newspapers
or watch the news you would think it is more dangerous than ever before. For example, the incessant hyping up of
violent events in the media is eroding trust at a very fundamental level by
making people feel unsafe. The language
of many politicians is becoming very divisive, creating fear of people ‘not
like us’ which is eroding trust in others, and the unethical behaviour of some corporate
leaders and bankers is eroding trust in business.
This
ever-growing lack of trust is actually damaging your organisation because trust
is the foundation stone of all collaboration and teamwork. If your people don’t trust you as a leader or
don’t trust one another as colleagues then engagement, and therefor
productivity, go out the window.
Most Managers Are
Ignorant
You
don’t have to take my word for it, just look at any of the research on
engagement and you will see that there is a positive statistical correlation
between high levels of engagement and enjoyment at work with high levels of productivity
and creativity that impact directly on the bottom line. However, there are still far too many managers
and leaders who are surprisingly ignorant about what makes people tick,
especially if you consider the hundreds of thousands of books written on the
subject of Leadership and Management.
Or
maybe it is not so surprising at all! It
is not unusual for new managers to be given a pay rise and told that they are
now responsible for the team without any induction to the role or training in
the basics of management. Many also lack
self-awareness let alone awareness of others.
The
cutting edge of Leadership and Management development is now looking at the
field of Neuroscience to better understand how to get the best out of
people. Early management science was
developed in the industrial revolution.
It was about how to get people to work harder and faster. Workers were not expected to think for
themselves. But as machinery took over
and the level of skills required to do basic jobs increased, the ability to understand
processes and systems became the focus.
Now it is all about how to learn faster and manage rapid change. The creativity required to solve problems and
make constant improvements to the way things are done requires a lot of
thinking. However, thinking is very
easily interfered with, so if your people don’t have the right mind-set or
level of trust in you and your business you are missing a trick.
A Limited Operating
System
The
neuroscientists are very interested in how we think and how our thinking is affected
by the various neurochemicals that are released by specific stimuli and situations. They can now measure which parts of the brain
are activated and the impact this has on our behaviour.
The
phenomenal pace of change in modern life means that we are still relying on an
operating system (our brain) that was designed for a very different lifestyle;
one that changed at a profoundly slower pace.
Early humans were only able to survive to the degree that they could
trust the other people around them. As
communities grew, trust was always at the core of their success because it
allowed collaboration, team work and specialisms to develop. Each person no longer needed to be able to do
everything to survive.
The Power of Oxytocin
Paul
J. Zak is fascinated by the concept of trust and has researched it for over 10
years. He is the founding director of
the Centre for Neuroeconomic Studies as well as being a professor of economics,
psychology, and management at Claremont Graduate University. He wrote the book Trust Factor: The Science
of Creating High-Performance Organisations which is based on his research.
Zak
has concluded that one of the most important neurochemicals related to the
development of trust is Oxytocin. It is
released by mothers and their new-born child, it is also found to be present in
loving couples and high-performing teams.
However,
there is more to Oxytocin than its bonding effect. Zac
states “having a sense of higher purpose stimulates Oxytocin production, as does
trust. Trust and purpose then mutually reinforce each other, providing a
mechanism for extended Oxytocin release, which produces happiness”.
He
goes on to say that joy on the job comes from doing purpose-driven work with a
trusted team. The correlation between (a) ‘trust reinforced by purpose’ and (b)
‘joy’ is very high: 0.77. This means
that joy can be considered a “sufficient statistic” that reveals how
effectively your company’s culture engages employees. To measure this, simply
ask, “How much do you enjoy your job on a typical day?”
The
presence of Oxytocin in our blood also reduces the fear of trusting a stranger
and the impact of trust on performance is pretty remarkable. According to Zac and his team’s research, compared
with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies
report: 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher
productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more
satisfaction with their lives and 40% less burnout.
Over
a period of 10 years Zac’s experiments explored the conditions that enhanced or
reduced Oxytocin production. It was no
surprise to find that high stress is a very potent Oxytocin inhibitor because
we all know that when people are very stressed they don’t interact with others
very effectively! However, it was only
when Zac and his team took the experiments out of the lab and started working
with teams and businesses that he developed a framework for managers.
Behaviours That Improve
Trust
In
a recent article Zac shared the eight management behaviours that can improve
the levels of trust in an organisation. These
behaviours are measurable and can be managed to improve performance.
1.
Recognise
Excellence
There
are many books that emphasise the need for effective recognition and Zac’s
experiments demonstrated that it is most powerful and long lasting when it
occurs immediately after a goal has been met, when it comes from peers, and
when it’s tangible, unexpected, personal, and public.
How
can you and your managers organise and facilitate more of this?
2.
Induce “Challenge
Stress”
It
is important to create just the right amount of pressure that releases the
right amount of neurochemicals including adrenalin and Oxytocin to enhance
people’s focus, strengthen social connections and improve collaboration. This happens most effectively when the
challenge requires a group effort and is attainable with a clear and specific
endpoint. It also needs to relate to a
bigger purpose that has meaning for the people involved. Vague, impossible or disconnected goals tend
to cause people to lose interest and give up because there is a lack of
motivation caused by the lack of the right neurochemicals. How are you creating the right level of
challenge and ensuring you join up the dots so they relate directly to the
greater purpose of your organisation?
3.
Give
People Discretion In How They Do Their Work
Effective
training and facilitating a learning culture is critical to developing an agile
business but once people are sufficiently trained managers need to let go and
let people execute projects in their own way (This is also a fundamental
principle of SIMPLE Delegation). Providing autonomy and being trusted is very
motivating: A 2014 Citigroup and LinkedIn survey found that nearly
half of employees would give up a 20% raise for greater control over how they
work.
Your
younger and less experienced team members are going to be your best innovators
because they are not constrained by the logic and experience bias of ‘what
usually works’. Just look at how the
major car manufacturers failed to produce a driverless car despite significant
investment by the US Government. After
five years of frustration the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency opened
the door to newcomers and offered a large financial prize for a
self-driving car that could complete a course in the Mojave Desert in less than
10 hours. Two years later a group of engineering students from Stanford
University won the challenge—and $2 million.
How can you provide more autonomy while maintaining appropriate checks
and balances to keep people on track?
4.
Enable Job
Crafting
Radical
new business models are emerging where people create their own jobs and choose
which projects they want to work on.
This means people focus their energy on what they are most passionate
about. Professor Zac worked for a while
at the Morning Star Company—the largest producer of tomato products in the
world. They have highly productive
colleagues who stay with the company year after year. People there don’t have job titles and they
self-organise into work groups. However,
it’s worth noting that this style of working requires very high levels of peer
accountability and very clear expectations.
A key part of this company’s success is the robust 360-degree
evaluations that are done when projects are completed and individual contributions
are measured. How can you create more
accountability and give people more autonomy so they can tap into their
passion?
5.
Share Information
Broadly
Uncertainty
erodes trust and a lack of communication from leaders creates a vacuum that is
quickly filled with gossip and rumours based on people’s fears and
insecurities. This can quickly lead to
chronic stress which inhibits Oxytocin and undermines teamwork. Openness is the antidote. A 2015 study of 2.5 million manager-led
teams in 195 countries found that workforce engagement improved when
supervisors had some form of daily
communication with direct reports.
Regular and ongoing communication is key, businesses that share their
strategy and explain why they are taking this approach reduce uncertainty. The social media optimisation company Buffer
takes a radical approach to transparency and publishes salaries for all
employees including the CEO online. What
do you need to do more of to improve communication throughout your business?
6.
Intentionally
Build Relationships
There
are now numerous studies that show that teams that know each and have good
interpersonal relationships outperform others with less social
interaction. Our success as a species is
due to our social skills and the brain network that Oxytocin activates is very
old in evolutionarily terms. This means
it is deeply embedded in our nature.
Studies at Google found that managers who “express interest in and
concern for team members’ success and personal well-being” outperform others in
the quality and quantity of their work.
What are you doing to help people build social connections and provide team-building
activities?
7.
Facilitate
Whole-person Growth
High-trust
workplaces help people to develop a Growth Mindset. This is more than developing skills, it is
about developing a learning attitude. In
the rapidly changing world of work if you are not growing as a human being your
performance will suffer. A number of
businesses are now replacing the Annual Performance Appraisal with more regular
discussions about professional and personal growth. Managers can ask questions like “how can I
help you get your next promotion or job?”
Zac and his team emphasise the need to include discussions about
work-life integration, family, and time for recreation and reflection. This is because there is now plenty of
evidence that demonstrates how investing in the whole person has a powerful
effect on engagement and retention. How
can you encourage managers to adopt a more frequent and more meaningful
conversation about developing a growth mindset with their people?
8.
Show Vulnerability
Asking
for help is a sign of a secure leader.
Zac’s research found that when a leader asks for help instead of
just telling people to do stuff it stimulates Oxytocin production in others, increasing
their trust and cooperation. Many
leaders feel as if they have to know all the answers and yet it is the leaders
with healthy self-esteem who are more likely
to be comfortable being vulnerable and engage everyone to reach common goals. Asking for help is effective because it taps
into our natural evolutionary impulse to cooperate with others. What do you need in order to feel more
comfortable asking for help?
Identifying Joy and
Passion
I
was intrigued to read about Zac’s research because it correlates with the
research and work of Dr. Dan Harrison who has developed a very powerful tool to
tap into what people enjoy most at work.
Harrison’s methodology and approach provide a simple way to quickly
identify people’s work expectations, what they enjoy most and what they are
passionate about. It also helps you to ensure
they are a good fit with the jobs you need to be done.
Once
managers have this vital information at their disposal they can have a very
meaningful conversation about all of the points mentioned above and explore how
to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with their people. This means you get highly engaged employees
who are productive and your people get to experience a job that is highly
fulfilling with a manager that helps them to grow.
Zac
and Harrison’s extensive research demonstrates that you can cultivate trust by
setting a clear direction, giving people what they need to see it through and
getting out of their way. It is also
important to recognise that this is not about being easy on your employees or
expecting less from them. High-trust companies hold people accountable but
without micromanaging them. They seek to genuinely understand their people and treat
them like responsible adults.
If
you would like to explore any of the above in more detail and help your
managers quickly understand what they need to do to build trust and engage
their people please contact Gloria at Admin@InspiredWorking.com and arrange
a time to have a chat.
With best regards,
David Klaasen
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